Let’s connect the dots on the ENTIRE financial system right now.
Fact #1: Banks are Insolvent.
The only reason they’re still in business is because they are permitted to value their balance sheet at whatever price they choose. I could privately value my car at $500 TRILLION, but that doesn’t mean I’ll get that price for it when it comes time to sell.
Ditto for the banks and their garbage saturated balance sheets.
Fact #2: Countries are Insolvent
Europe, a union of broke countries, recently announced it is bailing itself out. This is a bit like your bankrupt friend announcing he is gifting himself $1 million: it DOESN’T SOLVE ANYTHING. As I’ve stated time and again, you CANNOT solve a debt problem by issuing more debt.
Fact #3: Wall Street is Crooked
Anyone who even wants to debate this can look at Goldman Sachs’ latest trading results: Goldie made money EVERY SINGLE DAY of last quarter. As if that wasn’t statistically impossible enough, the firm pulled in $100 million+ on 35 out of 63 days. This simply cannot be done ethically. The only way your trading is that good is because you’re cheating (front-running your clients or manipulating the market).
Fact #4: The Central Bankers Cannot “SAVE” Anything
The world’s central bankers are clueless about fixing the debt problems (see Europe). If a private business employed the same tactics as Ben Bernanke and pals, it would be bankrupt. Leaving a paperweight on the “print” button is not a policy. Neither is buying garbage debt (something of NO value) at 100 cents on the dollar. Indeed, there’s a word for someone willing to the latter action; it’s “sucker.”
Fact #5: The Stock Market is Controlled by Computers
The stock market has rallied courtesy of outright manipulation and fraud. Bailout Ben’s money didn’t go to Mom and Pop America, it went to Wall Street where they gunned the stock market higher on next to no volume using algorithmic computer programs to front-run their clients (see Goldman above).
So markets today are not moving based on real investors, they are moving based on computers that trade back and forth in nanoseconds if not faster. These programs were created to reap a ¼ penny profit for each transaction the make (a policy the NYSE created to induce investors to continue trading and provide “liquidity”). However, as last Wednesday showed, when things start to get ugly all these “liquidity providers” seem to vanish in a hurry.
More Here..
Paperweight on the print button. Great comment.
ReplyDeleteThe economy is sinking into oblivion and this is what the banker MSM has to say about it:
ReplyDelete1. Erica Blasberg texted about quitting LPGA...
2. 'American Idol' castoff Michael Lynche: His...
3. Sarah Silverman's show axed by Comedy...
4. Have William & Kate set a royal wedding...
5. Traffic cameras divide nation's drivers
The 500-euro note is no longer available in Britain after evidence showed it was used mostly by criminals, British authorities said Thursday.
ReplyDeleteThe note has not been criminalized, but the move means it will no longer be available from banks or money service bureaus, the Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) said.
People will still be able to deposit 500-euro notes into British bank accounts if they bring the notes back from abroad, SOCA said. The amount of 500 euros is equivalent to about $628.
"There is no doubt that the main UK demand for the 500-euro note comes from serious organized criminals," said the agency's deputy director, Ian Cruxton. "The banknote wholesalers have shown decisive leadership in withdrawing supply. This is a bold and welcome move which will cause substantial disruption to criminals' ability to move and launder large quantities of cash."
Criminals have historically moved cash out of the country by exchanging high-denomination notes for lower denominations, which are harder to detect, regardless of the currency, SOCA said. An analysis by the agency, however, showed that more than 90 percent of British demand for the 500-euro note came from criminals.
"Today's announcement means that accessing 500-euro notes will be much more difficult," SOCA said. "Anyone trying to source them will attract attention."
SOCA said it hoped the move would make it harder for criminals to move and launder money and take cash across borders undetected.
Euro banknotes have seven different denominations: 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500. They are legal tender in the 16 European countries that use the euro.
The United Kingdom does not use the euro.
Illinois could not pay its bills since October of last year.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37136518/ns/us_news-life/page
Funniest thing this am at the futures pits as a trader was being interviewd about this weeks rather bizarre trading going on ( markets up on really weak volume etc. )
ReplyDeleteIn the background; left on the screens from "night shift" you know what was on most of the screens?
SILVER
SILVER
Silver prices
Silver spot
Silver contracts
Silver base lines
Silver consumption
Silver demand
They are getting into
SILVER
Take it for what it's worth
Fact #1 - True
ReplyDeleteFact #2 - True
Fact #3 - True
Fact #4 - True
Fact #5 - True
So what's a world Superpower to do when the financial sector is crashing and fiat infusions of currency fail to generate the proper market response?
War. Yes, historically great nations go to war to soak up over capacity in manufacturing and spur further production. Not some clean and neat warfare utilizing smart bombs and missiles. That will not do the job. No, No, a grand conventional war utilizing millions of lads with their fathers. A war that can use closed auto plants as military vehicle manufacturers and other now defunct industries that may be used to further the war effort.
So buck up boys it's off to war we march where national resources and freshly printed money can be spent to fulfill the needs of the many.
My Grandfather, Father, Brother, and myself all participated in the grand effort to preserve your freedom.
Off lads, off the the fields of war.
I disagree with number five. The stock market is not controlled by computers, it is administered by a cadre of little eichmann corporate technocrats on behalf of the plutocratic oligarchy.
ReplyDeleteI also disagree with those who blame the potential collapse solely on the bankers. It is much larger than the bankers, although the bankers play a significant role. It is a system. It is the military industrial complex divined of many intricate pieces that have collectively developed an inertia...seemingly unstoppable until the human species is extinguished.
Read this book, "Starving the Monkeys" by Tom Baugh: http://www.amazon.com/Starving-Monkeys-Fight-Back-Smarter/dp/0982543107
ReplyDeleteA few years back, I read about a portable EMP, as in portable enough to fit in a minivan or large SUV. This portable EMP could be pointed at a house our office building and fry everything inside; TV's, computers, cell phones, anything electronic.
ReplyDeleteIf any of you on the East Coast, ya know kinda like near Wall Street, can borrow one of these things and zap the NYSE, you'll be do'in us a big favor.
All five points are true. But the primary reason we are in trouble is our debt. Wall street has always been corrupt in the way you describe; good times and bad. The country's problem is our debt, deficit spending, wasteful spending and high taxes. The fix: Elect better more honest politicians, fire 10%-40% of federal workers and eliminate unneeded departments, cut taxes, zero based budgeting where everything is looked at with no sacred cows. We won't do this of course so we will have another "great" depression. Are you ready? There is less time then you think.
ReplyDeleteIt is just a matter of time now, then it will all be over. 2012
ReplyDeleteSomebody beat me to it. I wanted to add: And Illinois is broke. They stopped paying bills; they aren't even sending IOUs like California.
ReplyDeleteAs for California, they are so broke they are proposing to cut social services such as in-home help for the disabled. I have a disabled friend who lives in Los Angeles. He already had his stipend cut. He has part time in-home help to do things like shop for food, go to the post office, and get to a doctor (or hospital). If he has no one to help him, I guarantee he will have more seizures and cost the state a hell of a lot more in expenses, than a helper who probably gets $8 an hour.
Meanwhile, Congress is trying to decide how to cut costs and of course the first thing they talk about is cutting social services. Maybe they figure the elderly and disabled are too inform to revolt.